Wednesday, October 23, 2013

I Need To Pee But My Legs Are In The Air: Damn You John Mayer



I have to seriously pee…but my legs are in the air. And I am in a fierce Words With Friends battle I am not willing to quit here. The WWF is really just a successful distraction from the fact that I am holding my legs in the air, listening to my husband snore, and trying to contain all elements of procreation my body is currently harboring.  Zanax anyone?
 
I hate gravity.
It ruined my boobs, and my butt, and now its torturing me with trying to conceive gravity.  Why does gravity hate me!?

Oh now that song is stuck in my head...
Oh Gravity...Gravity is working against me
And gravity wants to bring me down
 
How long have my legs been like this? Are my abs burning? No, that's not possible, I don’t have any abs.
Did he really just fart?
 
My toes are asleep.
 
Now my knees are asleep? Weird.
 
Woah, I think I just caught a nap with my feet over my head. New talent, putting it on my About Me section…

I don’t know how long I’ve been like this, at least four days, at least since the beginning of my ‘fertile window’ which was last week, or….Let me check my fertility friend app…

This PreSeed is stupid sticky, or watery, or both. Its uncomfortable, wahhhh! Ohhh, I wish I had the stomach for the SoftCups, this wouldn’t be so miserable. I would be able to clean and do dishes like the girl on the box!
Damn it! Why am I such a weenie?!  Maybe I will go to the pharmacy in the morning to buy some, I don’t know. I'm so tired.

My phone is dying? No, I need to pee and I need to lay here and be distracted with my legs in the air….phone death beep?! No!

I. Need. To. Pee.
 


Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Doctors: Happy Or Mad At Informed Patients?

This post is lengthy, because I feel it all has merit, part of this is about my times as a patient before I was trying to get pregnant, but the end shows how I am dealing with the issue now with the doctors who are supposed to be happy to help me try to get and stay pregnant.



I pose this question because I feel as a patient in general, not just a new patient to fertility hurdles, I think I have some experience to draw upon. I wrote briefly in another blog post about my experience as a spinal patient, which went on consistently for over 4 years. It was a very upsetting struggle because if I hadn't kept pressing my doctors for certain tests, I would most likely be in a wheelchair for life. For the first year of my spinal problems, I didn't realize I was a spinal patient. I was bounced between different neurologists, all different in their levels of expertise.  I started out at just a family doctor, but when my medications were only able to treat the migraine, mildly and not prevent them, he sent me "up" the food chain. From there I had months of waiting and suffering between seeing the newest doctors, only to be sent for testing to come back inconclusive and be sent to another doctor from there only to start the process all over again.  After the last neurosurgeon didn't "find" anything and referred me to a chiropractor for adjustments, I was dejected. I had done everything four doctors, neurologists had told me to do, I had even allowed them to inject me with botox, (botox was first used to treat neurological patients). On my own I was even a great patient. I gave up meat completely (still a pesco-vegetarian to this day), gave up caffeine during all this (giggling as I sip my ice coffee), and I was the picture of health in my workouts and lifestyle. At one point I went on a raw food, vegan diet, with fish supplements, which did make me feel...better in most aspects of my life but its almost impossible to execute.

I hadn't bucked the system, I had not done gobs of research, I wasn't overly informed, never did I challenge the doctor with new schools of thought, or ask for additional testing or medications. All my doctors seemed happy to "help" me, glad to see me, sorry to see I was still suffering, but none offered anything other than pain medication and injections after an onset.

I was trusting.

I trusted that my medical counsel would act as if I was their mother, daughter, friend, wife. There were never any uncomfortable challenges to our appointments, it was just...business.  This went on like this for almost two years.

One day I woke up and I couldn't move my left arm, I could feel it, but moving it, it wouldn't cooperate with my brain, and it felt like I had rag arm, but I am right handed? I played softball and boxed religiously, still to that day. I am no stranger to the pains of workouts and sports injuries, I have even had a half dozen reconstructive knee surgeries at that point, I can deal with sports related pain. This pain was different. It was debilitating, like my migraines were...debilitating.

I stumbled through my bath and decided I could not wash my hair, it was excruciating enough lifting it up to turn the water on and off. Skipped shaving my legs, pantyhose it is!  My car at the time was a little sports car, six speed. Luckily my left arm was the problem not my right, but even using it to steer, was difficult.  I managed to get to the office, but had to ask a co-worker to help me get my briefcase out of the car. I looked a wreck, but I had gotten to work, on time, mostly dressed.

The rest of the week, got more difficult and more painful. My son was young at the time, so I had to also perform mommy duty and pretend I wasn't swearing under my breath during basketball practice, and had to wear my sunglasses inside to hide the wincing. It was awful.

About 5 days in I decided that the pain was only getting worse, I had tried to run my light workout at the track and couldn't bare the jostling of the jog.  I decided that I needed to see my doctor, I never even imagined it was related to my headaches and neck pain, I was just assuming that at the ripe old age of 27, my body decided to quit me.

My family doctor didn't even ask to see me, he just sent me straight in for an MRI, which I had had so many on my head that I didn't even blink. Most people would be worried they were getting a scan of their body. He did something that saved me from more years of pain. He asked for an MRI of my shoulder AND my C-Spine. 
 
Three days later, it was Monday. I had managed to stay on the couch most of the weekend, I never got out of my sweats except to take a bath and soak my body. I got a phone call at work around noon that my doctor wanted to see me that same day.  I was a little worried, but I was more worried as to how I was going to shift my appointments around to come in. I was so glad I had limped into work the week before and my bosses were also curious to see what was wrong with me. One of them took my last appointment for me, the other asked if he could tag along, he was also suffering with some strange lower back pain, he had told me I needed to see about my spine way before all of this.
 
I was flattered he was interested in my mystery ailment, and agreed. The doctor saw me last in the day so traffic was horrible and my arm was throbbing. When I got to the doctor I asked for a heating pad immediately. He came in and sat down, very seriously as if I were getting a few months to live prognosis and told me he was referring me to another specialist, at which point I rolled my eyes. I was waiting for the words...inconclusive.
 
Instead he said, "You need surgery on your spine, in several places."  My breath left me, he punched me right in the gut.  "Its very serious, and I recommend you don't wait too long to see someone."
 
Someone? He doesn't have a someone? He doesn't know a someone?
He always had a someone before...
 
"I have some names, but I am not sure who you will want to see first, an orthopedist or a neurosurgeon, and honestly you should see both, I don't have anyone here in the immediate area that I would recommend for long term treatment or surgery. These names are doctors that can order more testing and manage you with medicine until you find a surgeon you are comfortable with."
 
My boss started asking questions when I made no noises and my eyes started welling up. I really only remember hearing the rush of tears come over me and trying to keep them in my eyes.
 
The answers were simple because he wasn't the expert in these fields.
He didn't know, he wasn't sure, in his opinion, if it were him, things like that.
 
The very next day, I hear a commercial while I was in the car, for a neurosurgeon who did microsurgeries on the spine. I had heard this commercial several times, but the buzz words didn't mean anything at that point. I had headaches, I didn't have spine problems. This morning was different, I was hearing several of the same buzz words, and I dialed the number. The asked me to verify my insurance, if I had recent scans, which I did! And because it was the holiday weekend coming up, they had an appointment soon, in two days!
 
I took my scans in, optimistically. This micro-neurosurgeon was a pioneer in his field, had performed the first surgery of its kind and he had been in medical journals, on Good Morning America, on television! He was going to save me!!
 
He was unlike any doctor or surgeon I had ever met with, he was kind, he asked open ended questions, it was the day before Thanksgiving and he was at the office! He was heaven sent. My mother in law went to the appointment with me, and she's been a cardiac nurse for thirty years. She asked questions, took notes, made the doctor explain things in depth. We were there for almost two hours. He explained that my age was keeping me out of major surgery for now, but he needed to buy me some time. That I had several degenerating discs and that my headaches could absolutely be and he thought were related to my arm pain...
 
"What?! This guy is reaching, but its the only theory of my headaches
I haven't heard, I'll bite, tell me smart guy, how are they related..."
 
 
He explained he wanted to do an exploratory surgery to look at my C-Spine and try to burn a nerve root to deaden the pain, and if it worked we could look at doing more, if it didn't I would wake up and he would recommend the big surgery and send me to another surgeon who would put plates and screws and remove bones.
 
 
We scheduled the surgery exploratory-micro-neuro-surgery for a few weeks later and he prescribed physical therapy and tons of blood work and testing to be done in the mean time. I decided to take a few weeks of leave from work, otherwise I would never have been able to get all the testing done.
 
On the day of the surgery, I was excited, the possibility of my headaches and my neck pain being explained was such a far off possibility a few weeks ago that I felt like Santa was bringing me presents.  I arrived early and the anesthesiologist arrived to calm my nerves and before I knew it, I was awake again, and my arm pain was still there. But my headache, even though I didn't realize I had had one, for several years straight, was gone. My migraines had been all one giant spinal headache and it would never really subside completely, I was experiencing more intense symptoms but they were always there.  I woke, groggy, but free of my spinal head ache.
 
 
My family came out and told me how excited they were that my headaches were going to get better and were excited to see me. I was confused. I hadn't said a word to anyone, how can anyone possibly know my headache was gone?
 
 
The doctor came in before I could speak a first word and explained that I had been leaking spinal fluid for some time and he had done a simple blood patch to correct it.  He said he was sorry that my arm pain couldn't be corrected and that he had an excellent neurosurgeon come look at my scans while he was doing the blood patch and he recommended surgery as soon as I was healed from the blood patch. My discs were too far gone already. Even artificial discs would have been an option maybe a year ago, but at this point a multi-level fusion was my best option.  For now, my headaches would be controlled, but it my discs kept rubbing on one another, they would come back and leaking spinal fluid was no simple matter, it was serious and I needed to keep an eye on it.
 
Im elated. Yah, maybe my arms still throbbing, but I had answers!
 
I trusted they were right.
 
 
The very next day the new neurosurgeon saw me, and scheduled the fusion for two weeks away. I was going to be free of neck and arm pain, I was going to be able to run again, I was ecstatic.  This surgeon wasn't overly friendly, he took one look at an ex-ray...an Ex-Ray! The cheapest test of them all! And he said, this is what we will do, you will be in the hospital for five days, and you will be running half marathons again by the summer.
 
Awesome! Sign me up!
 
The surgery was painful, but tolerable, and I spent every last minute of those five days in the hospital. It was no picnic. I got home a week later, tried to do the physical therapy, too painful. Even with meds, way to painful. I could drive a few weeks later, and I felt semi normal, but I never felt like my head was attached to my spine. I felt, loose.
 
I kept my appointments, and did my physical therapy and went to all my monthly follow ups. Every time he saw me, an ex-ray was done, he looked, said the same things, "You aren't fused yet, that's why you still hurt...give it more time, it can take a year."
 
Six months came, and at night, my hands started burning, to the point of sleeping with ice packs in my socks on my hands. I would wake up screaming and my poor husband would have to tell me I wasn't on fire, and go get me more ice. 
 
The doctor looked at me strangely when I told him that, and said, "Sounds like carpal tunnel, you've gained weight, here is a test to go get a nerve conduction study," hmmmm.
 
The test came back that yes I had carpal tunnel, and that I needed surgery to correct that, but first I needed to lose weight.  
 
"What?"
 
 
If it was possible my pain in my shoulder and arm and neck was at an all time worse. I was miserable. I couldn't sleep, I was on every medication in the book, I hadn't returned to work, it was a depressing time in my life. Here I was almost ten months out of surgery and I was worse than before.  I started losing feeling in my toes, and I told my surgeon again about more symptoms.
 
His snide remarks of lose weight crushed me, and I lost it. I finally broke down into tears.
 
"How am I supposed to lose weight on steroids, pain meds, unable to walk more than 20 feet at a time? I cant lift anything because my hands are almost always on fire, and now my toes are starting to feel the same way! I am worse now that before the surgery!"
 
"Didn't you get the referral for the surgery on your hands? I cant help you if you don't pursue treatment, medicine isn't magic."
 
 
A flood of tears happened and he said, "Have a nice day."
 
 
The next day, I sat on the toilet getting ready for my bath and my legs went numb. Not fell asleep, but went numb, no feeling, no movement. I threw up from the fear. I called my husband into the bathroom and he brought me my cell phone. I called the only doctor who had ever listened to me, the micro surgeon.
 
 
Ironically, it was the day before Thanksgiving again. He called back within five minutes and the only reason it took him that long was that he had already called in an order for a myleogram at the local hospital and made sure they would stay long enough to see me that day. He would be standing by waiting for the results to be rushed to him.
 
 
A myleogram? Never heard of it. Why this test? Why never before?
 
 
I got to the imaging center, attached to a hospital, and they knew who I was. The nurse immediately put me on a stretcher and called the anesthesiologist, my legs were still numb so my mother and husband had dressed me and practically carried me into the hospital. Within a few minutes they had my feet strapped to a metal bed, an IV of dye into my spine and tilted my head towards the floor. The whole test lasted 4 minutes and afterwards they had me getting IV pain medicine and antibiotics for precaution.  After the procedure your head feels like it will explode, all the dye they inject to get an accurate picture has to dissolve slowly, but in the interim, it is excruciating
 
 
A little more than an hour went by and the radiologist came in to deliver my results, my hardware had come apart in my spine, several months earlier.
 
My metal parts keeping my spine in place...just...came apart? Months ago? I saw my surgeon, yesterday!? How is that possible?
 
 
Again, the breath came out of my body.
 
 
"Your surgeon was very smart to send you here and have these tests rushed," he said. "If you feel that you cannot lie flat until you see him Monday, then you would need to be admitted until then. Yon can go home, lie flat, or you can go to the hospital across town and he will admit you tonight. Whatever your decision, you need to be honest with yourself."
 
With it being Thanksgiving, I elected to lay flat and see him Monday, but I was nervous.  The appointment couldn't get here fast enough. I had a feeling that I wouldn't go home come Monday and I was right. That day a new neurosurgeon came in to my appointment and explained all the details of why I needed surgery that same day, and how urgent my condition was. And how he had already pushed back his non emergent surgeries to do mine, today. He had already ordered the new hardware and it should arrive by late afternoon and he wanted to get started and admit me right away to get all my blood work done and start me on more antibiotics. I agreed. I was afraid to move my head, I hadn't showered in almost five days, I was a beaten woman. 
 
Three years, three more surgeries, a few set backs, and sixty pounds later, I have no headaches, no arm pain, and minimal neck pain.  Praise Jesus.
 
I could get mad at my surgeons, or the more than half dozen doctors who were complacent, who hadn't ordered THE test I needed, they would have been able to diagnose me so much sooner.  But I didn't done my research. I had had no educated questions to ask, no educated speculations to give, no idea that my doctors didn't really care about ME personally.
 
Thankfully, two of my surgeons really did know what they were doing. And now, I'm a better, more annoying patient.
 
Which brings me to my fertility.  Over the last year I have seen my OB/GYN about 10 times, twice to remove my IUD SURGICALLY, the other for pre-conception, then getting pregnant, diarrhea while I was pregnant, my miscarriage, & follow ups.  I'm sure they are sick of me.
 
Unlike my spine surgeries, this time, I am informed. I know enough to ask questions. I have realized, I'm the only one really looking out for me. You may help me today, but by tomorrow, you wont remember my name, and tomorrow, I will still be in mourning over my miscarriage, and fertility concerns.  None of my surgeons before the last two ever followed up, to see how I was, had my condition improved...Can I help you in any way? Never. The last two were different, they gave a shit.
 
The healthcare industry in general in ridiculous, and now adding on to the burden will be The Affordable-Health-Care-Act. Lord help us all when that piece of garbage catches up to us.
 
I understand that its impossible to reach out to every single patient, or comply with every single patients request for certain tests. I get that. But what about your informed patients? What about listening to their notes, ideas, and theories? 
 
Three weeks ago I called my OB, and my PA called me back about a week later. I announced that I would like to see if she would call in a script for progesterone, because my Luteal Phase was so short, and she agreed that it was much too short and was probably a result of an anovulatory cycle. (Im still researching that one.) It was a coincidence that my period had come over the weekend while I was waiting for her to call back, it was nearly 2 weeks early.
 
She expressed concerns and asked me "How aggressive do you want to be?"
 
At first I was confused and I replied, "Im about to be 33, I don't want to be here in a year about to turn 34, etc. How aggressive is the next step?"
 
She explained, "I would like to get you to ovulate around day 13-15, so I want to do a follicle check on day 10, and maybe use a trigger shot to do if you aren't about to ovulate, then give you progesterone.  If you don't become pregnant this month then next month I would recommend Clomid, follicle monitoring, Clomid, then progesterone." 
 
The day I was talking to her was CD 3, so we both thought, hey, great timing. She even said, we could get you going THIS cycle. I was excited and nervous. But mostly excited.
 
I agreed and she set an appointment to see her yesterday and have a sonogram to look at my follicles.  I arrived yesterday and was told, my appointment after the sonogram was cancelled and I needed to see the doctor not the PA, but an appointment was scheduled next week to see the actual doctor. My sonogram was still in order so I waited and while I was upset, I wanted to hold out hope that the sonogram would show I was about to ovulate, and not get worried before I had all the available facts.
 
I got into the sonogram and was asking questions to keep informed, the tech was nice at first and answered my questions. She found my right ovary quickly and there was no dominate follicle and the only one she could find was only 10 mm, so I wasn't about to ovulate from the right. She started digging around looking for my left ovary and she couldn't find it, which was frustrating because she gave up quickly explaining that my bowels could be in the way.  I explained that my LH surge on my OPTs was confusing and urged her to schedule another sonogram in a few days. She said that she couldn't schedule the sonogram, which is a lie, she and the other tech have both scheduled follow ups for me in the past. She told me I needed to wait for my appointment with the doctor in a week. I was frustrated, in a week I would have missed the window...my information would be wrong, why cant she just wait an hour like other doctors offices and re-do the sonogram today? What was the point of the sonogram today if you don't get all the information? I went to the office manager, who is a total sweetheart, and she rolled her eyes and put me back in to see the PA in 30 minutes. I was frustrated but at least I could get some progesterone prescribed and do what I can in case I do ovulate before a week from today. Satisfied for now.
 
Then the sonogram tech comes out and sits next to me and asks, why are you still here? I explained that I would like to ask a few questions about my LH surge and progesterone and where I was in my cycle, etc. 
 
She gave me some very useful advice, "YOU NEED TO STAY OFF THE INTERNET."
 
I didn't let her deter me, she went on and on about how there was no reason to see the PA today, and I needed to invest in some PreSeed and just go on about my business as usual until I see the doctor. I nodded and waited for her to get up, she motioned to the office manager to cancel my appointment. The office manager looked at the computer and waited for her to leave and looked at me and shook her head to stay where I was. Relief.
 
A few minutes later, the actual doctors nurse came to get me and sat me down near the doctors actual office.  She asked point blank, what I wanted to accomplish today...I explained originally I called about progesterone, not much more, and that the PA had set up the sonogram, and retold the long story of where I was in my cycle as opposed to what's normal for me, ect. Another thirty minutes of my life....gone.
 
She promised she would check with the doctor and call me that evening to explain what the doctor said, but she was certain that I couldn't get the prescription for progesterone without seeing her and I needed to wait and also....
 
"STAY OFF THE INTERNET."
 
Great advice. Genius.
 
I left the office so frustrated, upset, mad, what a waste of time! I was determined to find and order progesterone off the internet, from a friend, anywhere, I was going to find it. Late yesterday evening, too late for a normal return phone call from a doctor, my phone rings.
 
It was the nurse, and she wasn't happy. They had called in my script for progesterone, and even gave me 4 refills. She scolded me, you HAVE to come to your appointment Monday. You CANNOT miss. Take these on day 14-28. Blah, blah, instructions that sounded wrong, ect.
 
At the end of the conversation, I was proud of myself for standing my ground. I need progesterone. I deserve good medical care, which includes someone listening to my thoughts and ideas.  No one had noticed when I told them my cycle lengths before that I might benefit from progesterone, why is it so frustrating for doctors to have patients be informed? Ask logical questions...and be right!? At least some times?
 
Are your doctors happy you do your homework? Or frustrated because they have to stay current on possible alternative treatments?
 
If I had done ANY research about my spine, maybe I would have saved 3 years of surgeries? Who knows?
 
If I get pregnant this month, will they be upset? Or happy it got resolved?
 
 
 

 
 
 

Monday, October 21, 2013

Coffee & Follicles: Day 1 Of My Ovary Monitoring

Today is the first day of the rest of my follicles lives.

This afternoon is my appointment to go get my follicles checked, or monitored!

I'm new to the whole follicle terminology enchilada, so forgive me if I don't get the terminology correctly worded.

Wouldn't you know it that my 10 year old would come down with a virus on this day. I carefully planned my doctors appointments for today around his school and after school events.  I don't feel great about any of my options for keeping him during the appointments as of this very minute. My husband is trying to come home early, but that's not ever guaranteed, leaving him at home is just not possible, I would be a nervous wreck. Taking him to the appointment would mean he would have to sit in the lobby, and if he gets sick, well, bad idea.  Right now the best option I have is to bring him and let him wait in the car, but even that idea makes me break out into hives. Not only does the thought of him being out in the open, an easy target for a kidnapper, but the radio is no place for a little boy. On his car ride to and from school, less then a mile away, I have to change the radio at least once each way to protect his innocent little ears.

Its hard to get excited about the appointment while my son is sick.  I know I cannot miss this appointment, it would be at least another month before I could be seen again, so I just have to figure out which option is best for him. Hopefully my husband can swing a half day off work. I just hope he wont have to sell his soul for a deal to get out of the office a few hours early.

So with my ice coffee digested I will begin research on all the things I need to know about todays appointments.  I have a feeling that the sonogram tech will fly through the sonogram and be vague as to what I am looking at, so I am preparing myself to take a lot of frantic notes, and do a little crash course in what I should ask.

They called earlier to let me know that I may not see the doctor today due to several surgeries that she is having to be called into, so I will most likely be meeting with the PA.  I really like the PA so I have no problems with it, but no treatment plan will be firmed up today with out the doctor to sign off on it.

With any luck, real luck, I will have signs of ovulation happening in the next few days, today is CD10, but I need to be prepared for the likely response of nothing is really happening in there and a few measures will be needed to be taken.  I am fine with it, before she tells me, but after she tells me, well, I might cry, because that makes it all real.

I will probably update this afternoon after I get out of the appointments, but I don't want to commit depending on the news.

This morning I took my daily OPT and my LH was still surging, but still not in the positive range of ovulation.  Its still an anomaly to me, since I normally don't ovulate until CD23/24.  I hope a few things get cleared up today and that possibly my doctor is worrying over nothing. Maybe my cycle fixed itself? Yah, right, I will go buy a lottery ticket if that's the case.


Saturday, October 19, 2013

A New Low: Pee-Pee To Go Cup

Oh the lows that I have seen on this journey to trying to conceive.

The tangled, mangled mess we weave when we obsess to conceive. Ugh.

As the title suggests, there was a to go order of urine this morning. And it probably is as bad as it sounds, and what' s worse is the fact that as I am typing this 10 or so hours later, with ample reflection time, I still can justify it with my mental gymnastics.

Yesterday's ovulation prediction test results were strange. For me. They weren't positive, but they were the color they usually are a few days before I get a certain positive. Anything that I find strange in regards to trying to conceive, I obsess over relentlessly, until I break down or find the answer. They threw me off because I am on CD 6 and I had just stopped spotting so I should have had a nil test result. It should have been non existent, should have been a glance, and toss result. But it wasn't. And the thing is, yah, its weird to ovulate a week or so early, but for me it would be more like 12-14 days early, if in fact the results are leading to what they usually do.

So, lucky for me, I was out of opts, and I had to wait to go to the store to get more.  I ordered a package of 20 of First Response but they sent me the digital ones that I HATE, and ironically had just mentioned yesterday. I was tempted to use them but decided to go exchange them at Wally World.

Yesterday I ended up being too wrapped up in the errands to obsess too much about the strange results. I was thinking about it, but couldn't act upon multiple tests or go buy more supplies. My husband was off yesterday and we spend the day together running errands and enjoying each other so he kept me from sprinting to a pharmacy to scrounge for more opts.

This morning started off really busy as well, so I took the last of the crappy OPTs I had and just couldn't get it to even give me any result, the whole strip was one blur.  I usually do the bathtub testing, where I go pee in a red solo cup and then put the tests in it and while I take a bath, I type on my laptop and TRY not to stare at them while I wait for the results. This morning my husband was waiting in the bathroom while I bathed and I was annoyed that I didn't have the good tests and now I cant know if yesterday I was just a total weirdo or if they are getting darker, just plain freaking out. 

"We are about to leave for the day and I won't be able to test until tonight and even then,
 I like to test at the same time every day...." 
<insert melt down whining>

And then I see it, the iced coffee my husband brought me.  WITH A LID!!  I got so excited and looked at my husbands glance and he just got up and brought me another cup for my coffee, and washed the coffee cup for me, no questions asked.  I poured what I needed into the to-go cup and found a big gallon zip lock bag to put it in, just for judgment's sake and got dressed really quickly. I had Ovulation Kits to exchange!

We both giggled on the car ride there, which is less than five minutes. We arrived at the store and I had to do the dreaded customer service line. We made it back in the car within 15 minutes. They aren't carrying the larger 20 counts anymore, so I settled on two packages of 7, I wasn't too upset because they come with a pregnancy test, so I just chalked it up to money I would have spent anyway.

I got in the car and couldn't WAIT to get the to-go cup out of the car. I opened the packages and did the test, and felt immediate embarrassment when we were back on the highway and I realized it was going to be half an hour before I could get this cup of pee out of the car. FAIL.

The ovulation kit looked exactly like it did yesterday, so we'll see if tomorrows is any darker. In the mean time, I'm going to try to forget I hatched this plan.



Friday, October 18, 2013

Ovulation Obsession: Fuzzy Pink Lines Everywhere & Nowhere

Hi, I'm Eggo, I'm addicted to peeing on sticks. 
Watch out for your popsicles, ladies.
 
Hi Eggo.

This journey, especially recently, has become more and more mentally exhausting. I find myself doing mental gymnastics to quantify what's what, every day. I plan my grocery list around my cycle, no feta cheese or lunch meats or tuna this week. I plan my weekends around baby dancing weeks in advance. I even have turned down vacations hoping I would be pregnant by the time the trip happens.

In my everyday life, I have not ever had the obsessive quality over anything except losing weight, and writing. But even those things, I give up mid way through because I get bored & tired of putting in the work. With peeing on a stick, there is no let up. Its everyday, twice a day, or more. I have a lengthy cycle, between 32-34 days, so I have to buy the large batch of ovulation kits, and I HAVE to buy the First Response ones, because if I don't, I will give in a few days into the cycle trying to interpret the fuzzy pink line, going cross eyed, taking the damn things apart and run to the pharmacy and spend double what I would have for the First Response ones if I would have ordered them online (link below).  By then I have spent almost as much on the cheap ones and I obsess over them until my eyes bleed. Instead of one million dollars in TTC materials and supplies, I have spent 2.5 million dollars. Ridiculous.

While I'm on the subject of TTC supplies...I also cannot understand why anyone would want to buy the digital yes/no ovulation predictor kits. I do understand the results can be left up to interpretation most days, but then there is that one day that you have no other way to view it other than PINK. I like to see the LH surge coming, that way we can do "homework"several days prior to ovulation. Sperm lives up to five days, so the more of those little guys are hanging out PRIOR to ovulation, the better the chances? Ehh?

I am no expert, AT ALL. So if you have advice for me or anyone about ANYTHING I post, please do. These are my experiences, which means, they are fu-barred and probably incorrect. That's just my life and I usually have to learn the hard way.  I am still very early into the Clomid, Fertility Monitoring, HCG triggers, and all that encompass them, so I am not one for advice. More often, I am one for comedic relief. Feel free to laugh at my pain. It helps.

I would love to say we only do homework around my ovulation, that would be less stressful. But we baby dance every other day from the departure of Aunt Flow to when she arrives back into town & during my "fertile window" we TRY to dance every day, but that is just miserable for both of us. I find I feel best if we baby dance every 36 hours, once in the morning, next day is afternoon, etc. We're still technically hitting every calendar day, but my husband doesn't hate me as much.  If we did our "homework" only around the fertile window, I would be a nervous, miserable, wreck. Kind of like the way I feel after I know the ovulation window has passed, there is just nothing I can do to change the outcome, it is what it is, I just don't know about it yet. But I always FEEL like there might be something I can do about it, like stand on my head and drink pomegranate juice, or drink spinach smoothies around the clock. You know, all the logical things we are supposed to do during the TWW (Two Week Wait).

The every other day theory was advice that my doctor gave us, the very first month of ATTC (Actively Trying To Conceive). And it was the month we got pregnant, (miscarried between 8-9 weeks) and since then, there has been no BFP (Big Fat Positive) and probably not coincidentally, we have been very sporadic with our baby dancing schedule. So this month, starts today! And we're sticking to the schedule!

Today should be cycle day 6, maybe I might even say that it today is cycle day 5.75 because I started over night, around 3am and tomorrow really wouldn't be CD 6, completely, not until after 3am. Last month was the first month my cycle has EVER been off. And when I say OFF, I mean, fu-barred. I started AF the day I normally ovulate, which was disheartening. Also, it was the first and ONLY month I have ever and will ever, ever, EVER, try to go sans ovulation prediction kit. Never, never, again. Its my fault, I listened to silly advice after a friend told me to just relax and not think about it, and I did try, but around the week my fertility app told me I should be ovulating, I ran to the pharmacy in a panic, but by then was about to I start my period. I wanted to punch my already accidently pregnant friend who issued the advice, squarely in the throat.  I love that advice people give you...

"Oh it will happen when you quit thinking so much about it." 
 
...Or...
 
"Throw away all those charts and just go get drunk with your husband and then wait two weeks..."
 
It just...I can't....I mean.
Ugh.





First, to address these ridiculous thought processes...I am 32, not 24. I do not have years to just wait around for the unicorn to meet the leprechaun and fly off to the chocolate factory and magic to happen. As I have found out, and will address soon, I do not ovulate normally, even if its mostly the same cycle days/lengths, and I would therefore have never accidently on purpose, wound up pregnant. And the longer it takes to get pregnant, the more time passes, the less likely it will just HAPPEN.  I would like to at least have the option to be pregnant and then be pregnant again, soon. Ideally, I would love to have two healthy babies between now and the time I turn 36, pie in the sky. I would just be ecstatic for one healthy baby.  Secondly, I have the longer cycles, so instead of having 14 chances a year to create a screaming bundle of poop and joy, I have like 8, maybe. If I actually did ovulate every cycle, which it doesn't appear to be the case, I have 8 chances in a year, most doctors wont even discuss "next steps" until after a year or more. Forgive me if I decide to be proactive.

When people say, "Oh just let it happen..." I want to say..."Oh, okay, just like all the colleges came to me, all the jobs searched for me, all the real estate agents just knew I was letting a house happen to me,..and everything just happened because I let it."

Give me a break. For some, 20 somethings, its a totally logical approach, but don't you think I already tried that?


And the go get drunk advice...should I even respond? I mean, yah, everyone needs to go get baby-hammered after Aunt Flow arrives, but to think that drunk sex once a month is better than tracking your cycle is ridiculous.  Do I agree and acknowledge that I have taken this "hobby" way too seriously? Without a doubt. Is it unhealthy? Physically, no. Emotionally, at times.  If I had a full time job, I would have gotten fired for all the baby board lurking and fertility research.

So my dramatic urine story of the day started out normal. I got up, husband took my son to school and I drew a bath and waited for him to bring back my Friday iced coffee. He's off on Fridays so I get to wake up slowly and enjoy the morning. I put my 'sample' in a cup and sat it on the floor next to the bathtub and put the two different kinds of ovulation test in to do the test and then waited in the bath tub for them to finish. I expected blanks, today is day 6, and I usually don't ovulate for another 20 something days. I did a double take and looked back to see a fairly dark line, not a positive, but definitely a build. Like I mentioned before, I get no line at the beginning of the cycle, but as it goes on, the line gets a little darker each day, until I get my positive. If I look back at pictures of my pee scrapbook (more on that later), it is comparative to about 3 days before I get a certain positive. Which is still usually 12-36 hours before the actual ovulation happens. So, hopefully, I get darker, then a positive Monday or Tuesday, and that should put me "ovulating" about CD13, which is so weird for me, but I will take it.

On a side note of concern, I do have my first appointment to monitor my follicles Monday afternoon, CD10. Depending on what they see, they are planning to give me a trigger shot if I haven't ovulated or it doesn't look like I am about to. Its already been decided I will be put on some form of progesterone. They are trying to bring my ovulation day closer to 14 and lengthen the time between my ovulation and my period, the luteal phase, to a full 14 days. If my body does better this cycle, she still plans on monitoring everything from CD 3 next cycle and prescribing Clomid, the trigger, and progesterone. So we are full steam ahead.  Again, I know...very little about this next step. So forgive me if my medical terminology is not med school quality. I will get there.


Good luck everyone! Keep on keepin' on! The battles are brutal but winning the war will be worth it!!








Thursday, October 17, 2013

The Plot: How I Got Here

Hello Invisible (Non-Existent?) Fellow Infertile Friends of Mine!

Welcome to hell, better known as, actively trying to conceive. Errrrr.

So this is not a dream blog of mine I conjured up because I've always wanted to be a writer of blogs and fertility seemed fun, and popular. I always have wanted to be, and am attempting to, be a writer, this is not a fun forum (trolls) or favorite topic (shoot me) of mine. It just so happens, after years of being responsible, going to school, launching a career, ingesting chemicals to ward off the pregnancy beast, I must have scared her off for good. Oh, goodie.

The first emotion at the discovery of my fertility woahs were sad, but not tears of sadness, but just a sad (pathetic) thing to latch onto in the mind-brain of an unpreggo eggo. Please, please DO judge me. The first thing that comes into my mind when I find out that this pregnancy thing is science, the kind of science I have to pay attention to to get right! My first thought is not, "Oh no, I'm broken!" or  "I'm never going to have another baby!" (my first/only child is 10-an ooops miracle), or "My poor husband will never have a baby of his own!" All these did come shortly after, but the first one was....

"Why the hell was I on birth control for 16 years....WTF?!"

and then...

"Why the fuck did anyone let me swallow pills as a 16 year old idiot?"

right after that...

"Why did anyone let me inject myself with reproductive radiation as a 20 year old?"

after that...

"Why the hell did I let anyone stick a piece of metal up my hoohaa when I was 23?"

And then these came....

"Aren't there tests I should be REQUIRED to take before taking years of reproductive crushing birth control, some of which was never going to work for my body?"

"So I went to the doctor every 8-10 months for 16 years and no one knew I was not really likely to get pregnant without medical intervention?"

"What about when I got pregnant on ortho-tricylin when I was 20? No one decided to look into that little fertility quagmire?"

And then these flashbacks raped my brain for a little while...

"Never mind the fact I was accused of flushing my birth control pills by my sons fathers insane mother who ranted that I tried to trap her gem of an unemployed loser son by getting pregnant on purpose.

(Yes, you crazy bitch. I would love to get knocked up by your abusive, alcoholic, unemployed, illiterate son. It sounds much better than what I have going on, let me throw away my full ride-athletic scholarship in my junior year of college, my tickets to Spain to study abroad for the summer, quit my amazing internship with an amazing company, and sit on my fat ass and collect welfare checks the rest of my miserable, white trash life. Yes, what an opportunity, I just cannot  pass this up. Your sons is such a catch, sign me up. There is only one of him! I need to snatch him up before the rest of the trailer park tries to! Who really wanted to be successful in life, anyway?)"

So after I ponder all those and the obligatory....

Life isn't fair!
Why am I an idiot?
What have I done to my life/body?
Why is there a show called 16 & Pregnant?
Why the hell is there a show called Teen Mom?

Then I decide my husband is a great (irrational) target for why I am not pregnant...

If I would have just pushed harder on the timeline of babies!
He should have known that I would have a hard time he shouldn't have MADE me wait!
How selfish of him, Im 3 years older, he should have known better!

They are all RIDICULOUS, but the last one is just DEPLOYARBLE.  First of all, no one has ever MADE me do anything (or not do) in my whole life, unless it was my idea or there was something in it for me.  To accuse my husband of anything other than sainthood, is just not even possible. He is pretty perfect in the husband department, so far anyway. My biggest complaint is that he falls asleep too easy, we can never get through an hour of television unless he is up cleaning...yes cleaning. That seriously turns into our biggest fights, and I am a brat. I deserve it, hate me. Call me a bitch, I know.

I am however, angry about most of these things, not to a damaging jump off a cliff extent, but if I think over them, yah, its irritating and I get mad.

But being mad, or sad, or letting my self pity get the better of me for too long isn't going to help me get pregnant any faster.  Trust me, everyone deserves, and even needs a woah-as-me pizza & pajama party, wine or dirty martinis, and a few sick days over the TTC unsuccessfully mission failed.  I need them, still.

Peeing on a stick every day of the month sounds easy, but its exhausting. Charting temperatures every morning sounds as simple as brushing your teeth. Symptom checking for ovulation, no biggie. Checking cervical mucus and positions sounds gross but hey, were trying to change dirty diapers for fun...what's a little EWCM compared to daily baby vomit? Its nothing!

Except it is!  It is a total and complete mind-fuck. Every. Single. Day.

I have loosely charted my whole life, mostly to make sure I could plan my summer beach trip around Aunt Flows visits, and keeping track of when I need to go get another Depo Provera shot, and then the birth control pills, all of its pretty well documented in some form or another. So when I say I am regular, I mean it. I've never been more than two days in either direction off of my expected menstrual arrival date.  The real charting and keeping up with cycle days came about 7 years ago when I started getting excruciating migraines. My family doctor had maxed me out on Maxalt and migraine meds and sent me to a neurologist. They are not all created equal. He wouldn't even see me until I had charted my periods for two solid months. Which turned out to be complete bullshit. He never educated me on how to chart, what to look for, the tools to use, nada. Just..."Hey, little girl, you're probably PMS'ing, so go write it down as your punishment you silly little woman."

So I did that, and since he really didn't have me record any valuable data, it showed exactly what I knew it would. I have 32 day cycles, my migraines are spread out no where near my period, and you still need to figure out what the hell is wrong with my head. You. Complete. Asshole. Jerk.

But really... after looking back on my migraine journals, they might have been a little worse around my cycle. This journal had to be burned because I was afraid if I died someone would come along and assume I was obsessed with bodily fluids, excrements, and organic foods. It included everything from food intake, calories divided by fats/carbs/proteins/animal fats/vegetarian intake, EXACT fluid intake, exact fluid expulsion (gross), bowel movements, the color of my menstruation...it was intense. And the guy wouldn't even look at it until I charted my period for another two months.

After 3 years, 4 neurologists and multiple scans, in an exploratory micro surgery on my spine after my migraines started causing (we thought) twitching in my spine, they found I was leaking spinal fluid. The surgeon did a blood patch and I literally woke up out of a fog of a 3 year headache I never knew I had. My spinal headaches had been so frequent, they wouldn't have time to subside. I would have relief of symptoms but they would not resolve. But I woke up without a headache. Unfortunately I had to have several more reconstructive spinal surgeries and metal plates to correct the reason the leak had happened in the fist place, but none the less, here was this beautiful documentation of my life that this idiot disregarded, that I wish I still had now.

My migraines were the most intense during ovulation, that's what that journal would have told us. I still get them during ovulation, right around the LH surge starting, but who would have ever known.  He didn't ask me for that, he asked me to write down

1.)When
2.)When Is It Over

And then compare them to my migraines.

When in fact, the headaches that required injections, those were probably all within 5-6 days. He didn't know what to look for, and most doctors, even brain surgeons, don't have a clue. 

All this information is all great and exciting to know, but man, I wish I would have put all this together when we first started ATTC this year. Another revelation too late was how long, or rather not long, my LP isn't. (luteinizing hormone phase) isn't. It is the key to the golden city. If I had known this, or had I known that it was a concern, I would have told my doctor after really charting for 5 months. I did realize it, because on my phone app that I use, it pointed it out, highlighted it for me. I even read the stats out loud when I saw her. She never even blinked. Its the sort of thing that I am so thankful that I am not a year further into this and don't know, because I just didn't do my research. Shame on everyone. Me, mostly, because I knew I should be asking for progesterone at the beginning of my pregnancy, but I just "let the doctors do their jobs." I wish I had it to do again.

I would have grabbed her face, made her look at me and said...

"My LP is only 7 days, it needs to be 10-12 at least...give me some progesterone."

And maybe she would have written me a script. And maybe I would be pregnant right now. But I never knew that my LP was too short. I honestly, for the first few months, was like,

"Hey all these llamas complain about this TWW (two week wait) and I'm over here, I can know in like a week. Lucky me!"

And at first, I was lucky. The very first month of ATTC we got pregnant, and it was a really, really short LP. It was only 6 days. And I was so excited. I got pregnant, and we are good at this and we're going to have tons of babies and we must be really fertile!

Yah, I hate that girl. That girl is stupid.

Wrong. It was beginners luck. After a month of swollen boobs, hands, feeling just a little tired, I miscarried. The baby never had a heartbeat that we could see. It measured just 4 weeks and 2 days when I was for certain at least 8 weeks along. So my LP was most likely the culprit. 

The first ultrasound was at 6 weeks, it was only measuring the same 4 weeks and 2 days, and she pulled out her chart and told me I must not have known the right ovulation days, I must have written down my LMP dates wrong, etc.  All the things you tell someone who accidently gets pregnant. I argued that there was no way that could be right, I had gotten a positive pregnancy test on X date, and even if I was off by 10 whole days, which I wasn't, the measurements were scary. She basically told me I was a moron, pulling out my phone to show her my very detailed Fertility Friend charting. So she dismissed me and scheduled another follow up sonogram for two weeks later. But I never made it to the next appointment. Instead, I started bleeding a few days before the appointment. There was never any suggestion to look into the causes of my miscarriage, never any questionnaire to be filled out to try to gain some insight. I was told some giant percentage number that I am purposely deleting from my brain, of women miscarry. They sent me home to miscarry unless I wanted to remove the pregnancy surgically. They did ask me if I wanted pain meds.  My husband was surprised when I declined the pain medicine, who doesn't need a little mental vacation during this horrible time?  I'm certainly not one who usually would decline that invite. I spent the next 4 days in the bathtub with my laptop sitting on a chair next to me. I didn't sleep there, but I woke up and got in, got out for lunch, then stayed in until dinner. In the middle of the night, I would get up and take two or three baths. Our water bill was almost $70 more that month.  It was the only place I could cry.  Every time I would go to change myself,  it was just a reminder I wasn't pregnant anymore. After the first half day, I just laid in the tub, refilling it when it got cold or I could see any unpleasant side effects. I never had to clean myself if I never got dirty. The clots and all the visible signs of a miscarriage are the worst parts.

I am going to save the details about my fertility specifics for later. Right now, I will just say that I am more than excited to start my new round of doctor appointments, which are about 3 days away and I should have more information then.

In the mean time, I will be googling all I can google about follicles, Clomid, trigger shots, HCG shots...and everything in between.  I never wanted to be here, but I hope I find some good friends and advice along the way. Positivity can only help at this point, so I am going to try to do that.